PowerPoint 2013: Present a PowerPoint File Online

You want to meet in real time to create or refine a PowerPoint presentation, but often the people with whom you need to meet cannot be at the same place at the same time. With the growing usage of messaging and audio/video conferencing software, people are collaborating from multiple locations. Whether you’re a student who needs to finish a class project with your peers, a small business owner who wants to share a presentation with clients, or a family member sharing vacation photos in a slide show, we know it’s important for any PowerPoint user to be able to easily share and work together on their PowerPoint files.

We’ve improved the capabilities of the PowerPoint 2010 Broadcast Service, and we are calling this new service the Office Presentation Service. It’s a simple, rich sharing experience that gives the presenter confidence that their attendees are able to follow along, wherever they are in the presentation. By adding an interactive communication channel, such as IM or voice/video applications, you can create a complete real time collaboration experience. And it’s free for all Office 2013 customers to use; all you need is a Microsoft account and Microsoft Office 2013.

Sharing a PowerPoint file

We wanted to create a natural experience, allowing you to easily transition from working on your presentation to sharing with others for comments, review, or collaboration. While working on your presentation, begin sharing by clicking File > Share > Present Online. From here, select Office Presentation Service and click Present Online.

To send your meeting invitation to attendees, select Copy Link to copy and paste the meeting hyperlink so others can access it, such as in a Skype chat window. Alternatively, you can select Send in Email to email the hyperlink using your email client or select Send in IM to send using your existing IM chat client.

When you are ready to start, click Start Presentation. When your attendees click the hyperlink, a browser window will open and the presentation will be displayed. They do not need to have PowerPoint or any other product installed on their computer.

New PowerPoint 2013 Sharing Features

Allowing you to focus on the content presented and be in control of the view were two goals we kept in mind while building these sharing features. We kept the experience as simple and natural as possible, so you can easily view and share your information with others. Here are a few new features we think you’ll enjoy.

PowerPoint Presentation Mode – Presenter View

The new Presenter View in PowerPoint 2013 is an amazing experience, and we’ve ensured you are able keep this experience when presenting via an Office Presentation Service presentation.

Sharing videos

Playing videos during a meeting is an important feature we know customers will appreciate. When you share a presentation with an embedded video, everyone can watch the video together, and we’ve included media play controls so attendees can mute, pause, seek and play on their own.

Download, Distribute, and Independent Viewing

Sometimes presenters want to distribute their file with meeting attendees and let everyone view the slides independently, like when classmates are working together on a class presentation. In the final Office 2013 version, it’s easy for you to share the presentation with everyone, or not. It’s up to you. To enable attendees to download the presentation and view the slides on their own, simply select the Enable remote viewers to download the presentation check box when starting the presentation.

Attendee Independent Navigation

Sometimes the presenter moves on to the next slide before everyone else has had a chance to read all the information presented. We’ve heard that feedback and have enabled everyone to independently view slides with the navigation arrows at the bottom of the slide, or using their keyboard. Doing this does not interrupt the presenter or change anyone else’s view.

When attendees are viewing the file independently, we’ve built two ways to alert them they are now viewing the content independently. Clicking the Follow Presenter button allows attendees to easily go back to the same slide the presenter is viewing.

Thanks for reading, and have fun trying out the new features when sharing a PowerPoint file!

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This feature doesn’t work properly. After checking the "enable remote viewers to download" option, remote viewers can’t actually download because the download link is always grayed out. This happens whether the presentation is stored on SkyDrive or stored locally. And it doesn’t work in IE 10, Firefox or Chrome. This needs to be tested further.